CHAPTER 498: CHAPTER 498. LET’S DUKE IT OUT

Under normal circumstances, defeating five Mystic Stage cultivators was a walk in the park for a Peak Spirit Stage cultivator like Pan Lohuan. Unfortunately for the rebel elder, his circumstances weren’t normal. He was seriously wounded, had only one arm left, was greatly fatigued, and was under severe mental stress.

All these factors let the five perfectly synched battle puppets press on him. Supported by Amon’s flying knives and the Sun Hawk’s fireballs, Pan Lohuan found himself on the side with disadvantages.

The worst was the mental stress. Pan Lohuan was an experienced leader. He knew how to suppress his mental state and prevent bad thoughts from affecting his judgment and performance. Still, what had happened was not a simple bad day. It was a calamitous day. All he had strived for his entire life was reduced to dust. All his allies and underlings were either wiped out or arrested. He had no more home to return to if Lao Zen’s claim about the raid on all his secret hideouts was to be trusted.

Anyone who was dealt this kind of blow would have crumbled and fell to their knees. Pan Lohuan tried his best not to think about this loss, but it became increasingly difficult as time passed. The reality of this awful defeat kept weighing his mind, especially when Amon kept taunting him.

"Master Pan, the great rebel elder. How does it feel now that you no longer have a rebellion to lead? It must be very liberating, isn’t it? Perhaps this is heaven’s way of telling you it is time to rest your weary bones on the ground."

Out of his four hundred years of life, he had encountered countless attempts from his adversaries to throw him off balance using verbal assaults. No one succeeded. He had always kept his cool. He refused to let emotions dictate his actions. That was true only until today. Amon’s insult was not even the worst to ever be hurled at him, but he found himself unable to stomach it.

"You, piece of crap! You think you’ve defeated me? Wait until you see how I break all the bones in your body and remove your skin to turn it into my coat!"

With that shout, Pan Lohuan charged forward. A powerful shockwave followed his charge. This shockwave blasted three of the closest battle puppets away.

After those three took the brunt of the shockwave, the other two utilized the chance to slip in. Pan Lohuan didn’t back down. He continued onward. Because he only had one arm left, he could only deal with one puppet. He let the other puppet land a punch at him, relying on his Spirit Stage’s constitution to tank the blow.

The puppet he was fighting broke its arm after it clashed with his palm. His palm was exuding a bright light. He was like holding a shiny meteor in his hand. He slammed this shining meteor into the puppet’s body. What was left from the battle puppet after he went through it were bits of scraps across the air.

He continued charging toward Amon, still holding the shining meteor at the tip of his hand.

"Impressive display, Master Pan," Amon mocked. He instructed the Sun Hawk to move away.

"Do not think you can escape!" Pan Lohuan exclaimed.

He retracted his shining hand. As he did, a strong suction force was generated.

"Star Absorbing Tide?" Amon identified the martial art Pan Lohuan used. He had seen the same martial art performed by Hu Ti, the leader of Alley Advocates from Qishurg City.

The sucking force pulling at him now was much greater than what Hu Ti used on him in the past. Considering Pan Lohuan’s cultivation was much higher, this was expected. Both Amon and the Sun Hawk were pulled toward Pan Lohuan.

The Sun Hawk screeched for getting dragged against its will. It protested by unleashing all the remaining fire energy it had stored. A massive flame burst out when they almost reached Pan Lohuan. The flame was like a flare that engulfed Pan Lohuan’s body. Pan Lohuan didn’t retreat. At this stage, he was almost as if he didn’t care if he lived or died. He again relied on the raw protective energy of his cultivation.

However, he sensed a sudden spike of energy from inside the flame. An energy that he rarely sensed, an energy not supposed to exist in this world, the infernal energy!

This unexpected sensing caused him to retreat just as a pitch-black sword swung at him from inside the flame. He shoved the shining meteor in his hand toward this black sword. As light and darkness collided, a pulverizing shockwave radiated out, flinging both sides in opposite directions.

Pan Lohuan stared at Amon with wide eyes. The black sword he just clashed with was the fiery energy radiating from Amon’s ceremonial dagger. The black sword was radiating the darkness element. Weapons that released infernal elements were not surprising, but the energy coming out of Amon and powering the ceremonial dagger was no doubt the infernal energy.

"You... You are a demon...?" Pan Lohuan uttered.

Gao Tien, who was fighting two battle puppets not far away, was also aware of the energy Amon released.

"Demon! Wait until I tell the whole world of this!" Gao Tien exclaimed.

Amon didn’t look at all concerned about his secret being out. He said to Gao Tien, "Would you look at that? Now, we both have a secret we don’t want the world to know. Let’s duke it out until only one of us walks away."

"It is for sure won’t be you!" Pan Lohuan exclaimed. He waved his hand, and multiple light darts flew at Amon.

Amon threw the ceremonial dagger forward. His infernal energy still powered the dagger via the Xian Cloth. With the cloth, he performed Infinite Phantom Slash in a large area. The black sword created a crisscrossing net of black slashes that destroyed the light darts.

Pan Lohuan was startled. Even though he was severely weakened due to his condition, he was still a Peak Spirit Stage cultivator. From this exchange and the first clash with the black sword, it was clear that the black sword produced by the ceremonial dagger could contest against his power.

During his disbelief, the four battle puppets approached him from behind. He controlled the light surfboard under his feet to dodge their attacks. With a wide swing, he forced them back.

While doing that, he sensed Amon do something again using infernal energy. When he returned his attention to Amon, he saw five water rings flying at him. He could sense the energy contained within these rings was not to scoff at.

He thrust his arm and used Star Absorbing Tide in reverse. The martial arts created a torrential force that diverted the five rings’ flight path. They swirled around him before flying back at Amon.

The rings were not under Amon’s control anymore. They were pushed by Pan Lohuan’s art. Amon commanded the Sun Hawk to move away, but it was slightly late. One ring sliced its wing while another grazed its leg. It screeched in pain as it lost control of its flight.

Amon himself deflected one water ring using Bo Wu in his left arm. He remained in the air using his Mystic Stage’s flying ability. He was not distracted by what befell his pet. The water rings might fail to hit Pan Lohuan, but they were never meant as the killing strike. They were distractions. His true attack emerged from behind Pan Lohuan when Pan Lohuan redirected the water rings back at him.

Two pitch-black tentacles emerged from a black hole materializing behind Pan Lohuan. This was Amon’s Elder God Tentacles. Amon had reached the skill mastery with this arcane art. At this mastery, two tentacles appeared instead of one, and he could summon them from further away than before. They also moved faster.

Pan Lohuan sensed the darkness-element art behind him, but he was executing his martial arts at the time, so he couldn’t move freely. By the time he could, one of the tentacles was almost upon him.

His light surfboard reacted. He glided away but was not fast enough. The black tentacle touched it, and the surfboard exploded.

Light and darkness were opposing elements. They were both weak to each other. If one side had a stronger power, it would overpower the other as if it were against the weaker element. From how his light surfboard was easily destroyed, Pan Lohuan understood the black tentacle was stronger.

This revelation shocked him. Though weakened, there was no way the art generated by his Spirit Stage’s energy to be weaker.

Pan Lohuan didn’t know Amon was using the mixed energy from his mixed space to execute the Elder God Tentacles. Inside the black tentacles were thin traces of light. The Elder God Tentacles itself was high-tier profound, a level of art that Pan Lohuan had never encountered or fought against. With the additional power boost from Amon’s unique mixed energy, it generated power that could challenge Pan Lohuan’s weakened art.

Pan Lohuan created the shining meteor again and shoved it at the second tentacle reaching for him. This shining meteor was similarly shattered upon contact. The tentacle wrapped around his arm. In desperation, he used the Star Absorbing Tide to push the tentacle away, but the tentacle hovered over his arm. It couldn’t touch but also refused to leave his arm.

The first tentacle came and joined in wrapping the arm. With the two pushing down, Pan Lohuan couldn’t resist for long. The two tentacles gripped his arm. Pan Lohuan screamed in pain while his arm was eroded. With a violent rip, the tentacles tore that arm away. He was now without arms.